Knife Volume 2 (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club #16)

Chapter 1

“What the fuck have you done?”

Knife heard his wolf in his voice, but there wasn’t a damned thing he could do about it while his inner beast roared, claws shredding the last of his control because she was his, and she’d just burned her entire world down for him.

She held his gaze and said nothing, and then a hand landed on his shoulder.

“You can’t have this conversation here,” Dawg said. “Take her into the office.”

Knife looked at the packed house and shook his head. “I can’t leave you without help.”

Gonzo stepped behind the bar and said, “You aren’t. Go.”

That meant they were down a bouncer, but they could pull someone in from across the street to help with security, so Knife wiped his hands and came out from behind the bar, walked to the office, and assumed she’d follow.

She’d cut off the pack, and that was like having a limb cut off. Having part of your very soul excised. It’d hurt so bad he thought he might die when he’d left his home pack. He fucking knew what she’d gone through, and never in a million years would he have asked her to do it.

He turned to face her, and he wanted to shake her for being stupid. For hurting herself. For fucking her life up.

“Go back to Kenny,” he said. “Tonight. Call him right now, tell him you made a mistake, beg him to take you back. He’s a reasonable man, he’ll—”

“No.”

“Tuesday—”

“No.” Calm. Steady. Like she’d already made every decision that needed making and was simply waiting for him to catch up. “I’m not going back.”

“You broke up with me.” The words came out with more force than he’d intended, but they were true, and he’d been carrying them for months. “You ended it. You walked away. We’re done. It’s over, and that was your fucking decision.”

“You’re the one who fucking told me you loved me and then let me just walk away! You don’t get to tell me you love me right before… Fuck, Knife. I love you with all my heart and soul. Walking away didn’t make that stop. One of us had to make a decision, and it looks like it fucking had to be me!”

He shook his head. “No. I had a plan. Three months. If we could last three fucking months, I’d have left the club so we could be together, but you couldn’t give us that! You fucking ended it!”

“I know. Having to stare at you across the table without acknowledging what we were to each other… what we fucking are to each other, it was like being forced to deny our truth, and it was just…” She shook her head.

“It was too much, and there was no end in sight, because at that time, leaving the pack for you wasn’t an option, but then…

” she shrugged. “Cora did it. I knew Kenny would refuse, but I didn’t go to him. ”

“So instead of talking to me, you go and do this? Without a word? Without—” He moved away from her, turned back. The office felt smaller than it usually did. “I would never have let you do this. Never have asked you to rip the fucking pack from your soul. Never.”

“I know that, too. It’s why I had to do it and then let you know.”

He was about to demand she go to Cora and Kenny and beg to be allowed back again, but she kept talking.

“I would’ve never asked you to walk away from your brothers.

I still have my family, but your brothers have taken the place of your family, in some ways.

I haven’t lost my grandmother, parents, and cousins, but you’re hours from your family.

” She blew out a breath. “Also, you’re who you are because of their part in your life, and I love who you are. I don’t want to change you.”

“You—” He stopped. Started again. The guilt hit him square in the chest and he pushed it down because if he let it in, he wouldn’t be able to say what needed saying. “Do you understand what you’ve taken on? What going lone wolf actually means? The danger—”

“Yes.”

“You could’ve been hurt. The ritual alone—”

“I know what it fucking cost. I was there.”

“You should’ve talked to me first.” His voice dropped to a growl, and he pushed his wolf down. He didn’t trust his inner animal around her in that moment. “You should’ve told me what you were thinking. I would’ve—”

“What?” She took a step toward him, right in his space.

“Told me not to? Talked me out of it?” She kept coming, and the height difference meant she had to tilt her head back to glare up at him.

“You’d have said exactly what you’re saying now.

We’d have argued, and I’d have done it anyway, then we’d have argued again. ”

“That was my choice,” he snarled. “You took that from me.”

“And you told me you fucking loved me when I tried to break it off. I tried to move on, but…” Her voice broke and she shook her head. “No one was you.”

The words hit him like a fist to the gut, because he’d had the same problem, but he brushed it aside and growled out, “I didn’t ask you to do this.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” She closed the remaining distance between them, and he had to look down at her — and the little spitfire held eye contact without flinching.

“I did it for me, because I couldn’t live without you, so I found a way to fix the problem.

You can be furious with me about how I did it, but you don’t get to tell me it was wrong. ”

He didn’t think, he just grabbed her. His mouth crashed down on hers, teeth catching her lip as he forced her jaw open. Her arms went around his neck, but it wasn’t enough. He needed more, and gentle was beyond him.

So pissed he couldn’t see straight, he spun her around, bent her over the heavy wooden table, and shoved her skirt up to her waist. He hooked his fingers in her panties and ripped them off with a savage yank. The sound of tearing fabric only fed the furious rage boiling inside him.

She lifted her ass for him while he unzipped, offering herself without hesitation, and that only fed his fury because she’d burned her world down for him, and she had no right offering everything she had left.

No, he needed to fucking take it, she didn’t get to fucking offer it, and he lined up and slammed into her cunt in a brutal thrust, burying himself to the hilt, finally inside her again, and his wolf roared inside of him.

She cried out, hands scrabbling across the table, but he didn’t slow.

He fucked her hard and fast, hips slamming against her ass full force, one hand fisted in her hair, the other gripping her hip tight enough to leave bruises.

Weeks of anger, guilt, and aching loneliness poured out of him with every savage, punishing thrust.

“Fuck you for doing this,” he growled, pounding into her. “Fuck you for walking away. Fuck you for making me miss you this goddamn much.”

She came the first time with a broken sob, her cunt clamping down around him like a vise. He fucked her straight through it, harder, chasing the pain and the pleasure and the unbearable relief of finally being inside her again.

The second orgasm hit her with vicious intensity. She screamed his name, body shaking violently, and he finally let go. He buried himself deep and came with a raw, guttural roar, emptying himself inside her in pulsing waves that drained him of everything.

For a long moment the only sound in the office was their ragged breathing.

Then he pulled out, turned her around, and lifted her into his arms. His heart stilled when she curled into him, and he carried her to the sofa, sat, and settled her in his lap, her head tucked against his chest, fingers gripping his shirt.

He wrapped his arms around her like he was afraid she’d disappear if he let go.

“I love you,” she whispered against his neck. “There was no other way.”

“There was,” he said, voice rough. “I was going to leave the club. I had a plan. Three months. If we could make it three months, I was going to walk away from my brothers so we could be together.”

She went very still.

“Not in my mind, there wasn’t,” she said softly. “Can you forgive me?”

The question broke something open inside him.

He’d been so fucking angry at her for cutting herself off from everything she knew, for not giving him the chance to be the one who sacrificed. But sitting here with her in his arms, feeling the way she fit against him like she was made for this exact spot, he realized the truth.

She’d done it for them.

He pressed his face into her hair and held her tighter.

“Still want to belt your ass for it, but yeah. Give me a few days, and I’ll forgive you. I love you too much not to.”

But he wondered if she’d truly thought this through. Lone wolves have no protection. She was in danger, roaming the world without smelling of pack.

How could she possibly travel for work without Kenny and Cora behind her?

And then it hit him. He’d have to find a way to make her a big part of the MC, so she had the bikers behind her. All cities wouldn’t be safe for her, but they hadn’t been before, either.

They’d figure it out.

Somehow.

And if not, he’d convince Kenny to take her back and get him in the process. It was against the rules, a dire wolf joining a normal pack, but he’d broken the family’s rules to join the MC, too.

- - - ? - - -

Tuesday just sat in his lap, happy to be back in his arms. Nothing was settled, but he was holding her, so she’d call it a win.

About the time she wondered how long they’d have until someone needed the office, he told her, “You need to meet my brothers, but even more importantly, they need to meet you.”

She looked down at herself — hunter green skirt, white blouse, pearls, the clothes she’d put on that morning to show respect at Homewood. “I’m a little overdressed for a biker bar.”

Not to mention she was exhausted, and still figuring out how to move and function without the power of the pack flowing through her.

“You look exactly right,” he said, and the way he said it didn’t leave room for argument.

He stopped at the bar to introduce her to Gonzo and Dawg, and then introduced her to Bubbles on the way out the door. She had a feeling he’d been brought in to handle security since Gonzo was helping out in the bar.

“What did you drive?” he asked when they stepped out of the building.